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Can GOP manage the mic in Tampa?

Figures such as Santorum, Cain, Cheney, Palin and Paul could make waves. | AP Photo

Organizers must balance the need to pay proper homage to party elders and grass-roots favorites while not spotlighting polarizing figures who remind independent voters what they don’t like about the GOP. A Romney adviser suggested the focus would be more on rising GOP stars and, mentioning Democrat-turned-Republican former congressman Artur Davis, individuals who may have backed Obama four years ago but have now soured on the president. A number of sources say the program will be heavy on short, punchy speeches by a wide variety of individuals.

Veteran Republicans say Romney should be cold-blooded about the schedule.

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“This should be a four-day celebration of Romney and a series of attack themes against Obama,” said longtime GOP hand Ed Rollins. “Everything else is a distraction. If some of those folks want a speaking role, it has to be daytime.”

Mike Murphy, another senior Republican strategist, said whoever speaks before the networks air the proceedings each night is largely moot.

“They could put a juggler up there,” Murphy cracked. “But until they put a live camera on the stage it doesn’t matter. C-SPAN will be carrying it [before prime time] and prison inmates can tune in. This is not like the old days when John Chancellor was chasing everybody down with a microphone and the networks were on around the clock.”

In the case of Bush and Cheney, the prevailing assumption among some Republican insiders is that neither has any burning desire to speak at yet another party convention and that the party’s torch has been passed, anyway. One of the 2008 convention organizers recalled how John McCain’s campaign caught a break that year when both Bush and Cheney scrapped Monday appearances in St. Paul because Hurricane Gustav was bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Bush wound up speaking to the convention only via video from the White House.

One way to show respect for the former president and vice president could be to again have them record a video message to show the delegates, something that’s tightly controlled and could be done between speeches by preferred messengers.

“Video is very important in today’s social media world,” deadpanned one GOP operative involved in the planning.

But past presidents have traditionally addressed conventions — both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton gave speeches after they left the White House that were as memorable as those by their party’s nominee — and it may seem odd if the GOP’s most recent two-term president isn’t in Tampa.

A spokesman for Bush, Freddy Ford, wouldn’t say whether the former president intends to attend, saying only that it’s the Bush team’s policy not to “comment on his schedule this far in advance.”

In the case of the more provocative figures in the party, the Trumps and the Palins, organizers are quietly hoping they’ll be satisfied during the week by having access to the various news outlets arrayed in Tampa and believe they can be made to feel important without necessarily getting time on the stage.

Officials note that Trump has already gotten his share of attention from Romney and believe he’ll be a team player when it comes to the convention. Few involved in Tampa planning know what Palin intends to do, but they assume she’ll be in town in her capacity as a paid contributor for Fox News.

Ron Paul is the only credible and interesting candidate on the Republican side. Whilst he is sidelined and corporate raider Romney is the nominee, the challenger is toast. Obama will be re-elected and I wish him well.

Barack Obama has developed quite a record as a liar. He lied for more than a decade about where he was born. He lied about many aspects of his life in his fictional “memoir.” He lied about his Chicago years and his activities and associations there. (Has anyone ever asked the question, what did Obama do when he lived in Chicago, and whom did he know there, since it seems that all of the activities and associations of which we have a record are now, as Nixon might say, inoperative.) To answer my own question, I think a candidate likely can lie his way into office, but I doubt that in incumbent president can lie his way to re-election. For the first time in his life, apparently, Barack Obama has a record.

Which doesn’t stop him from trying. The Obama campaign’s current Bain Capital smear, which many media outlets have taken up, ranks with Quemoy, Matsu and Checkers as absurd campaign “issues.” But it is all that a flailing, out-of-ammo campaign has to offer. Michael Ramirez comments:

Unlike Obama's Charlotte, North Carolina DNC Convention that everybody is avoiding like bad breath, the Tampa Florida Convention for Mitt Romney is booked.

Whatever happened to Obama's Hope and Change? Obama believes he has drawn blood with his latest round of distorted and discredited attacks. However, the cost of Obama's smear attacks is only proving that he is a charade and a liar.

Does anyone know what the record is for the amount lies someone can string continuously together in under 2 minutes?

Probably something that the Guinness World Records should look into.

I'm sure there a criminals in state and Federal Prisons that have strung a few together during their life times, but what about a trusted public official?...What about someone who is supposed to be an example to us all?...What about someone who is asking American's to put their faith in him for the most important and influential job in the world?...What if the President was proven to be a SERIAL LIAR?

Ron Paul is the only credible and interesting candidate on the Republican side. Whilst he is sidelined and corporate raider Romney is the nominee, the challenger is toast. Obama will be re-elected and I wish him well.

Let's see, you're a Ron Paul supporter out of one side of your mouth, but can wish Obama "well" out of the other side of your mouth.